Worker shortage hits businesses ahead of Christmas season

Australian retailers are struggling to fill hundreds of thousands of job vacancies.

Pim Norbergin in the keg room at The Fortune of War pub. Picture: Jane Dempster

Australian retailers and restaurant owners are struggling to fill hundreds of thousands of job vacancies ahead of the Christmas period, as industry bodies call on Scott Morrison to urgently open up international borders to ease the pressure of the country’s worst worker shortage in two decades.

Domestic workers are not in sufficient supply to fill jobs being advertised to support businesses through the festive season, as the country’s largest states emerge from pandemic restrictions.

Prior to Covid-19, there were about 45,000 vacancies in the hospitality industry. That figure has blown out to almost 85,000, and is expected to increase more rapidly as the country returns to pre-­pandemic trade.

Coles is adding more than 7000 positions across its food and liquor divisions and Coles Express, not just for Christmas but to cope with growing demand.

Likewise, Woolworths is advertising for thousands of positions and BIG W is hoping to hire 3500 staff to help field the incoming wave of shoppers.

AusPost is looking to add a rec­ord 4000-plus Christmas casuals to its national team.

While the federal government has refused to confirm a hard date for when the border will reopen to workers, the Prime Minister said he anticipated skilled migrant workers and international students could arrive from “late Nov­ember to early December” after Australian residents were permitted to come home.

Chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Andrew McKellar said that wasn’t good enough. “To maximise the recovery, we can’t just restore our migration settings to their pre-pandemic levels”.

“We need to push for ambitious growth in skilled migration, reaching up to 200,000 arrivals a year if we want to realise our economic potential,” he said. “While the acceleration of the inter­national reopening plan is certainly a step in the right direction, focus must now shift to reopening our borders to skilled migrants.

“It doesn’t matter how we dress this up, we’re not going to be able to solve the impending skills crisis until we move beyond border closures and quarantine to open up to fully vaccinated skilled migrants.”

The hospitality industry is widely regarded as the sector worst affected by the pandemic from the ins-and-outs of lockdowns, and its reliance on international workers, Australian Hotels Association chief Stephen Ferguson said. “At the start of the pandemic, we lost a lot of (inter­national workers) back to their home countries … they weren’t able to access assistance schemes plus they were keen to get back home to wherever that might be.

“At present, we’re not able to bring them back, which has left our businesses in tatters. We need to open up the border to workers and save our businesses ahead of Christmas.”

He said some pubs would have to operate at a limited capacity to cope with the staffing crisis. “We are going to see places offer reduced hours or reduced offerings. That may also mean limited menus,” Mr Ferguson said.

Steve Speed, publican of Sydney’s oldest pub, The Fortune of War in The Rocks, worries he will have to close his doors temporarily if he loses another worker.

“I’m on a knife edge at the moment,” he said. “Now that borders are opening up, a lot of my workers who are local kids want Christmas holidays or to go away. Usually we’d have travellers to pick up the slack, but not this year.

“We’ve got a job ad out for kitchen hand, bar staff, wait staff and pretty much everyone is coming back saying no.”

Retail is in a similar position because of the need for highly trained staff ahead of the Christmas trading period and Boxing Day sales, where most discretionary retailers make up to two-thirds of their profits for the year.

“While we could see the return of international students and skilled migrant workers in the weeks before Christmas, it’ll still be a challenge to fill all the vacant casual positions,” Australian Retailers Association chief Paul Zahra said. “It’s a timely reminder for people looking to supplement their income that there are many jobs and opportunities on offer in the retail industry.”

Many small business owners will “work themselves into the ground” if they are unable to fill their casual positions, said Council of Small Business Organisations Australia chief Alexi Boyd.

“Either people aren’t going to open at full capacity or we’re going to see small business owners working 80 hour weeks because they can’t find people to fill jobs.”